I think my dealer is trying to rip me off

[theshawism]

Hi all,

I drive a 2009 Sentra. Recently the check engine light came on. I took it to a Pep-Boys and they told me its a transmission issue. 2003-10 model Nissans with a CVT (my car falls into this group) are guaranteed to a 10 year/120,000 mile warranty for any transmission issues.

I called Nissan's corporate HQ and they told me to take it to a dealer for them to diagnose and repair, so that's what I did. I took it to the same dealer where I bought the car, pre-used. A few hours later, they call me and told me the issue was the wrong transmission fluid was in the system (it had a red color) and that the entire transmission has to be replaced at a cost of $3,800. Because of that, the warranty was voided. I called my usual car mechanic and he said he never touched the transmission fluid in the 4 years he worked on the car. I pleaded my case to corporate, and they basically stood by the dealer.

I did some research and using the wrong fluid in a CVT transmission would cause it to fail fairly quickly (like in a year/ under 20K miles). Can anyone else with transmission knowledge verify this? In one news report I saw, a lady got the wrong transmission fluid in her Nissan and it failed after 13K miles. I have receipts from my mechanic dating back to 2014 (27K miles ago). There is nothing about a transmission fluid change in there, which is not at all some casual type maintenance. In addition, my mechanic is also Nissan certified. I feel almost convinced the dealer is trying to rip me off. During this whole time, the car is getting worked on. How should I proceed with this?

[Rogue One]

So if I understand you correctly, you purchased a used Sentra.The wrong fluid could have been added by the previous owner prior to disposing of the car. The fact that the transmission lasted longer than your online research indicates may be because some of the correct fluid remained in it, or because you got lucky, or both. There's no hard and fast rule saying a transmission will fail in X amount of time, just that it will eventually fail.

The pitfalls of buying used is that you have no idea what type of maintenance the previous owner did or did not do to the car.

[theshawism]

I originally thought it was possible the wrong fluid was added by the previous owner, but Nissan's corporate HQ essentially told me if that happened, the car would've failed far sooner, meaning that they believe the faulty fluid change happened during the time I've owned the car.

I bought the car at 62,700 miles. I took it to the dealers when it was at 109,500 miles. So I put 46,800 miles on it.

[Ikon_1911]

Call a lawyer... It appears they sold you a car with the "wrong fluid" in it. Make them produce the documents where they services the transmission or verified it was the correct fluid, since it's an issue they should've verified that from day one before they sold it. Flip it on them... Trust me it works!

I checked with my attorney and he says I should've been a lawyer too! He's a relative

Good luck

[Ikon_1911]

Secondly, your transmission could've just failed... It's a 7 year old car... Good luck